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How many hours of practice for 3d animation beginners?
How Often did you have to practice on the software to start getting a solid starting point for 3d animation? Practice hours? What steps and how many trial and errors to get a solid grasp for the software?
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Jed’s Answer
The time commitment required to get to solid level of competency depends on which software you're using and what you're trying to do - Just in Blender, for instance, there are modeling, rigging, animation, lighting, compositing, and many more full toolsets that a person could easily sink their proverbial 10000 hours into, to say nothing of Maya, Houdini, Unreal, etc. I think the trick is to see the overwhelming breadth and depth of modern 3D animation toolsets as exciting rather than intimidating. Accept that features will be added faster than you can ever learn to use them, and take some joy in the never ending exploration. If you're trying to get into something really art focused like character modeling or animation, establishing a daily sketching, painting, or sculpting habit can work wonders: skills like composition, flow, color, and anatomy will give you an edge regardless of the tools you're asked to use. In terms of learning specific software, though, I don't know that it's particularly helpful to think in terms of practice hours. Personally, I've found that the best method for learning a new tool is to find something I want to do with it - maybe a character or prop I want to model or a short scene I want to animate - and let the needs of the project dictate my exploration of the tool. It's much less intimidating to try to figure out how to build a nice looking magical effect material in Maya's Hypershade than it is to try to just learn all of Maya. (And as someone who has spent the last 20+ years up to my elbows under the hood of Maya, I can say with confidence that anyone who says that they know all of Maya is lying to you.) I've found that when I really get cooking on an exciting personal project, I end up having to apply my discipline to putting the project down to address inconveniences like eating and sleeping. When you finish you will have gained a cohesive set of applicable skills, and as a bonus you'll have made a cool thing that you can use to demonstrate what you're capable to the world, and more importantly to yourself.
Thank you for responding! That part about letting your project dictate your expansion on the tool kinda alleviates the pressure! I was ready to throw myself all in! Thank you so much for your input!!
Gyeslanie